This paper is part of a larger study into the public relations positioning strategies of two political leaders about a contentious carbon pricing policy in Australia. Specifically the paper investigates an interesting phenomenon that emerged as part of that larger study. By applying the intentional positioning framework for public relations (James, 2010, 2011, 2014) it appeared that public relations, as a profession, were being negatively positioned in the speeches of one politician. Although in Australia media stories criticising political public relations are commonplace, it was surprising that a politician would do the same given the reliance of each of the major political parties on public relations expertise. The study found that the goal of the politician in question was to position the opposing politician as illegitimate. This was achieved through the enactment of speech acts to targeted audiences that drew on existing socio-cultural discourses about the unethical nature of public relations.

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Dr Deborah Wise
University of Newcastle
Australia
Positioning PR:
an analysis of the
positioning of
public relations in
Australian
political speeches

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The study
 Research aim: To further knowledge of public relations
positioning through a micro-level analysis of political positioning
in relation to an Australian carbon tax/price
 Texts: 23 political speeches delivered by (former) PM Julia
Gillard & (former) Opposition leader Tony Abbott, during the 3-
month lead up to the to the introduction of the ‘Clean Energy
Bill’ (2011) to the Federal Parliament.
 Tests the intentional strategic positioning framework for public
relations (James, 2010, 2011, 2014) which is adapted from van
Langenhove’s (1999) framework

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Contextual Backdrop
 Australian politics dominated by the Australian Labor Party
(ALP) and the Liberal Party of Australia (in coalition with the
Australian National Party) known as the Coalition or LNP
 2007: ALP wins the world’s first climate change election
 2010: PM Gillard announces she will not introduce a carbon tax
 2011: PM Gillard announces her Govt. will introduce a carbon
price
 2013: LNP wins election vowing to remove the carbon tax
 2014: Australia becomes the 1st country to repeal it’s carbon
pricing legislation

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Contextual backdrop
 PR plays a key role in managing and shaping political debates
(Young, 2007)
 PR Practitioners use social science research“to strategically
modify the discourse practices of targeted discourse
consumers” (Roper, 2005, p. 141).
 Political rhetoric attempts to persuade or influence the thoughts
and/or actions of others (Ihlen, 2010).
 Framing techniques are used in an attempt to get “an audience
to automatically respond to a given issue in a certain way by
creating a dominant framework of understanding” (Glover, 2007, p.
154).

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Positioning in PR
 “The strategic attempt to stake out and occupy a site of
intentional representation in the contested space where
meanings are constructed, contested, and reconstructed (James,
2011)
 Stresses how parties to positioning efforts have rights and
duties jointly constituted through engaging in discursive
practices, and how entities undertaking a PR program must
have the right, or construct the right, to discursively take a
particular position (Wise & James, 2013)

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The Intentional Positioning
Framework for Public Relations
 Intended for use when devising, or analysing PR campaigns
 Originally consisted of four core domains
• Positioning triangle domain (3 vertices of: storylines, speech
act/action & position)
• Positioning purpose domain (6 types originally proposed but
no longer included in the framework)
• Positioning type domain (deliberate self positioning,
deliberate other positioning, forced self positioning & forced
other positioning)
• Positioning goal domain

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The Intentional Positioning
Framework for Public Relations
• Position: the strategic attempt to stake out and occupy a site of
intentional representation in the contested space where
meanings are constructed, contested and reconstructed (James,
2014).
• Speech acts/action: the language or actions enacted to
establish the desired position
• Storylines: “strategic self-storying” or the narrative developed
by an organisation to communicate its point of view, its
interpretation of reality and its position at any given time (James,
2014)

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The Intentional Positioning
Framework for Public Relations

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Abbott:
 Storylines: Political leader delivering a speech to: (a) the
Australian people (b) Steelworkers’ conference delegates
 Storyline (narrative) The Govt. uses spin/PR stunts
 Speech acts (a) “Why should we trust this government with a
new tax when we know where it will all end: with more
spending, more waste and more spin” (Abbott, Address to the Nation)
 Speech acts (b) “Any meeting to address the problems in
manufacturing industry that doesn’t address the carbon tax is
nothing more than a desperate PR stunt” (Abbott, Address to the
Australian Steel Convention)
 Position: The Govt. can’t be trusted with the economy

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Gillard:
 Storyline: PM giving a speech to the Australian people
 Storyline (narrative): We understand economic pressures on
families
 Speech act: “Our plan makes polluters pay but we know
some of the costs will be passed through, and while the price
impact will be modest we do know family budgets are always
tight”
 Position: We can be trusted with the economy

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Positioning Type/Goal Domains
 Deliberate/forced self positioning
• Gillard/Govt.
• Abbott/LNP
 Deliberate other positioning:
• Australian public (Gillard/Abbott)
• PR as a professional field (Abbott)
• Steelworker Convention delegates (Abbott)
• Australian families (Gillard)
• “Big polluters” (Gillard)
 Positioning goal: to be elected/re-elected

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Findings
 In public political discourse the social force of discursive acts
includes meanings “conjured among third party publics, whom
the contending parties wish to win over in a power game of
discursive influence” (Montiel & Guzman, 2010, p. 96).
 Social force of positioning PR was to legitimise Abbott & the
Opposition while delegitimising Gillard/Government
 Gillard was refused the right (by the electorate) to position a
carbon price in this way (poor PR strategy)
 Success of Abbott’s positioning of Govt. was contingent on the
pre- existing attitudes that individuals have about PR

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Discussion
 Relationships need to be contextualised –the framework
assists in examining discourses within specific contexts
 The framework provides a structure to guide the analysis of
how an entity positions itself AND PR campaigns
 Demonstrates the importance of strategic storytelling as a
key tactic in contemporary public relations practice
 Supports the proposition that for positioning to succeed all
three vertices of the positioning triangle must align
 Underlines how an entity must construct the right to position
themselves, or a public policy/PR program within the local
moral order if a position is to succeed

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But…
 Storylines at the context level and storylines at the narrative
level
 Raises questions about speech acts in PR positioning. E.g.
Naming a speech act as something (i.e. assertive etc.) without
analysis of the social force is meaningless
 PR positioning vs. intentional positioning - is there a difference
in how they should be analysed?
 Can we ever “know” the goal of a commissioning entity purely
from the analysis of texts?

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Thank you
Deborah.Wise@uon.edu.au